"Too Heavy For My Pocket" - A play about the civil rights movement at George Street

April 20, 2019

Historical events always consist of much more than is on the surface.

No matter how complex the public image of the event—the civil rights movement of the 1960s, say—the image is incomplete without the stories of countless individuals who contributed to the event and were affected by it.

This reality underlies Jiréh Breon Holder’s play Too Heavy for Your Pocket which will be presented at the George Street Playhouse April 23 through May 19.

“Cultural mythology is stuck in time, depending on how near it is to us,” the playwright said in a call from California. “The civil rights movement has really been frozen in our collective memories, the time of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, John F. Kennedy, ‘I had a dream.’ Even my grandparents accept that at times.’’

But, Holder said, “I realize that there is more to mine in the history of that time; there’s more that’s useful there.”